Fighting Structural Inequalities

Who benefits and who is burdened – these are the questions that lie at the heart of policy debates. Too often, it is low-income people and people of color who experience the negative impacts of public policies.

Many of the major planning decisions of the last century were made without any input from low-income communities and communities of color. Whether it was the construction of the national highway system and post-World War II suburbs, redlining and the exclusionary housing policies of the 1950s, the “redevelopment” of black and brown communities, or the current era of “SmartGrowth” and regional planning, time and again, these communities are left out of the decision making process and suffer disproportionately from these policies.

Urban Habitat’s Policy and Advocacy Campaigns seek to reverse this tide. We bring a race and class analysis to planning, land use, housing, and transportation decisions and investments. Building on our roots in the environmental justice movement, we support grassroots organizing at both the local and regional levels. Our goal? Nothing less than to make the Bay Area a just and equitable home for all its residents. We do it through three major project areas: Transportation Justice, Housing Justice, and Equitable Land-Use. Explore our campaigns and advocacy wins.